Why Malaysia, Known For Moderate Islam, Should Expect More ISIS Attacks

Malaysian police announced this month their country’s first confirmed attack by the violent Islamic State. Someone in Syria gave orders to bomb the Movida night club in the Malaysian town of Puchong June 28, injuring eight people, according to local media reports. Now some worry that the night club incident will lead a string of Islamic State (ISIS) attacks in Malaysia. The hardcore ISIS resents Malaysia’s moderate Islam and the government's condemnation of its violent approach to making believers more puritan. The violent group also sees chances to convert disgruntled low-income Malaysians into future attack planners in the generally well-off country.

“In terms of why Malaysia is a target, struggles over the specific nature and extent of Islamization are keen in Malaysia,” says Meredith Weiss, associate political science professor with The State University of New York at Albany.

Malaysian forensic experts inspect the site of grenade attack at a restaurrant in Puchong district outside of Kuala Lumpur on June 28, 2016. (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images)

About 61% of the 30 million Malaysians believe in Islam and you see ornate mosques throughout the country. Alcohol and pork, both prohibited by the religion, can be hard to find in small towns and women commonly wear hijabs. However, per the constitution Malaysia is a secular state and a lot of people, such as the large ethnic Chinese minority, are unlikely to follow Islam. Malaysian officials have been among the world’s most vocal against ISIS and back U.S. efforts to squelch it. Malaysian police have already foiled other would-be violence, such as an attempt in March 2015 to attack two embassies in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

“Malaysia is naturally viewed as a thorn in IS’s worldview and ideology,” says Phuong Nguyen, associate fellow at the Southeast Asia Program of U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. ISIS has decided to attack now Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand because its supporters in Southeast Asia took a "cue" from its call to target “so-called non-believers” during a Muslim holy month, Nguyen says. The same group has beheaded Westerners near its base in Syria and claimed attacks from Turkey through Europe to the United States.

Among those supporters in Malaysia may be people who feel “alienated” on the poor side of a wealth gap, says Oh Ei Sun, international studies teacher at Singapore Nanyang University. About 1% of Malaysians live in poverty, according to government statistics from 2014. Easily swayed by religion, some of the poor can be turned into recruits for IS. “Where Muslims are a majority, there’s an effort to make it more puritanical,” Oh adds.

Like the night club attack, future attempts at violence may target police and the government at large, Weiss says. Police evidently know that as they have stepped up counter-terrorism work over the past year. Debate over the character and extent of Islamization in Malaysia “has perhaps fed aggravation with the state and police, at least among those already inclined to be disgruntled and short-fused,” Weiss says.